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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Leave Rush alone!

Leave Rush alone!

by DougJ|  May 10, 200910:47 pm| 97 Comments

This post is in: Media, Assholes

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You had to know this was coming:

There’s some chatter in the blogosphere and on cable TV about comedian Wanda Sykes’ routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night, particularly her jokes about conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh.

[…..]

London Telegraph US editor Toby Harnden had a very different reaction, writing “Obama seemed to think this bit was pretty hilarious, grinning and chuckling and turning to share the ‘joke’ with the person sitting on his right. There’s not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead. What was his crime? Hoping that Obama’s policies – which he views as socialist – will fail. That’s way, way beyond reasoned debate or comedy and Obama’s reaction to it was astonishing…Obama laughing when someone wishes Limbaugh dead? Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington.”

Pat Buchanan, who has his own history of offensive comments, likewise said on MSNBC that Sykes’s jokes about Limbaugh will “hurt the dinner.”

It’s from Jake Tapper, natch.

But what do I know? I’ve never worked in the media and I have no clue how things function.

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Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 10, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    Yeah, I knew it. So what? Where is the outrage over David Feherty’s comments from the rightwing and the traditional media? Oh, that’s right–there wasn’t any.

    Besides, waterboarding isn’t torture, amirite? Rush is vile. He can dish it out, but he can’t take it (by proxy).

    By the way, anyone else see Glenn Beck at the dinner whooping it up like a fool when the prez gave a shout-out to FOX news? At least, I think it was him.

    P.S. Rush was not saying he wanted Obama’s policies to fail–not at first. He said he wanted Obama to fail. It was only after it was pointed out that if Obama failed, the country would fail that Rush said he wanted Obama’s policies to fail–which amounts to the same thing.

  2. 2.

    arguingwithsignposts

    May 10, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    WATB – the lot of them. Please make teh stupid stop!

    And, FWIW, the Houston Chronicle had Alberto “I don’t recall” Gonzalez at their table. WTF?

    @asiangrrlMN: Yeah, I saw Beck for a moment there too. These people have no shame. If he had an ounce of non-hypocrisy in his body, he wouldn’t be caught in the same room with so-cial-ists like “Obambi.”

  3. 3.

    Will

    May 10, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    Obama didn’t laugh at the Limbaugh jokes. Anyone who has actually watched the video knows this. That angle is complete, 100% bull$hit.

    That said, she was really, really funny.

  4. 4.

    jon

    May 10, 2009 at 10:54 pm

    I’m sure Rushbo will push this meme all week long, but he’s too dumb not to take a cheap shot at Sykes during his “outrage” and effectively neuter the story(Ill take ‘attack on Sykes for being gay’ in the pool). There’s no clip of Obama cracking up at the joke, just smiling(and trying not to laugh), so if the focus is Obama, its a 1 day story(and will be overshadowed by Obama’s joking).

  5. 5.

    Ninerdave

    May 10, 2009 at 10:54 pm

    Trapper’s a douche, why do you bother reading him Doug?

  6. 6.

    GoodNewsForMcCain

    May 10, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    If God loves me, in 3 months, we’ll be having to stomach blogosphere cries of “Wanda Sykes’ kidney failure jokes caused Rush to die of a massive heart attack!!!”

    Yeah, I’m making jokes about ill fortune on others, but he’s an unrepentent asshole who wants to have it both ways.

  7. 7.

    DougJ

    May 10, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    Trapper’s a douche, why do you bother reading him Doug?

    He’s useful as a barometer of what Beltway thinking is. And he’s less noxious than Halperin.

  8. 8.

    MikeJ

    May 10, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    And he’s less noxious than Halperin.

    They all look alike to me.

  9. 9.

    Michael

    May 10, 2009 at 11:02 pm

    Poor Jabba – unlike Father Coughlin, he’s got continuous microphone access, a monstrous payment (at least as long as Clear Channel still treads water while having the millstone of his phat contract hanging from the neck) and no possibility of anybody on his side calling him out.

    Fact is, he could get videotaped snorting coke from the crack of a dead underaged male escort, and the GOP would still be defending him.

  10. 10.

    sgwhiteinfla

    May 10, 2009 at 11:03 pm

    Wait, when Limbaugh joked recently about brain cancer patient Senator Ted Kennedy dying soon on his radio show didn’t all the conservatives say he was “just an entertainer”? Well Wanda Sykes in a similar vein is “just an entertainer”. Only her stuff is actually funny. Fuck Rush’s fat ass and every bootlicking wingnut who tries to score points with this issue

    By the way DougJ, of all people Joe Klein smacked this bullshit down this morning on CNN. I figured you would appreciate this

    http://mediamatters.org/clips/200905100003

    Check out Kurtz’s weaksauce, “Lie is a strong word” bullshit right at the end.

  11. 11.

    Andre

    May 10, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    @MikeJ:

    They all look alike to me.

    That’s racist!

    You’re better off saying something like “I have difficulty pronouncing their names.”

  12. 12.

    someguy

    May 10, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    Y’know, I was at lunch today, and asked my folks if it’s always been this bad. I said, “Mom, you fuckin’ whore, what the fuck is wrong with this country?” She said it didn’t used to be this bad, but agreed it’s a pretty sad day when you can’t wish a painful death on somebody without being called mean spirited.

  13. 13.

    Mr. Stuck

    May 10, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    and wished him dead.

    Not me. We’d soon be ass deep in donuts and Halperin grief.

  14. 14.

    Jon

    May 10, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    @GoodNewsForMcCain: You don’t want that, you want him to get caught in some hideously bad situation(hopefully with grainy cellphone video) like having a heart attack after having cambodian underaged transsexual hookers shoot him up with meth thats too pure and have the GOP rank and file defend him.

  15. 15.

    Joshua Norton

    May 10, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    After Chimpy was “elected”, Wanda also “scientifically” proved all the problems in the country were Florida’s fault. Her solution to the problem? “Fuck Florida”. That one still makes me howl.

    Sorry, Florida. It was the way she said it.

  16. 16.

    Comrade Jake

    May 10, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    @sgwhiteinfla:

    I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that the young lady from the Washington Times found the jokes about Palin and Rush in poor taste. Nobody could have ever predicted that.

    And Tapper’s a complete asshat.

  17. 17.

    El Cid

    May 10, 2009 at 11:16 pm

    I think I recall seeing Obama uncomfortably pick up his water glass and drink at that uncomfortable moment.

    But this surely means that Obama will now have the DHS jack booted thugs eliminate Rush Limbaugh.

    I think it was a dumb choice by Sykes.

  18. 18.

    Andre

    May 10, 2009 at 11:16 pm

    @Jon:

    The thing is though, GOPers love a “redemption story”, so they’d let that one slide.

    As long as you’re white, male, rich and conservative, you can always rise above your human failings and become a better, wiser person. Anyone else gets 30-to-life if they’re lucky.

  19. 19.

    DougJ

    May 10, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    She said it didn’t used to be this bad, but agreed it’s a pretty sad day when you can’t wish a painful death on somebody without being called mean spirited.

    Kidney failure doesn’t cause death, it just means you have to go into dialysis. And drug use, like Limbaugh’s, can be a cause of kidney failure.

    Can’t you morons even get your medical facts straight?

    I guess, though, I can’t expect too much scientific knowledge from people who believe the earth is 6000 years old.

  20. 20.

    AhabTRuler

    May 10, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    @Comrade Jake: Get out the fainting couch, the lady from the Moony Times has the vapours.

  21. 21.

    Joshua Norton

    May 10, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh

    I believe that “giant” refers to his size 64 pants.

  22. 22.

    sgwhiteinfla

    May 10, 2009 at 11:18 pm

    Comrade Jake

    I can’t stand Amanda Carpenter. She is a wingnut’s wingnut and she stays on FoxNews and Townhall. During the campaign last year she was rude as shit on MSNBC and they would usually pair her up with a guy who didn’t want to come off wrong by putting her in check. Talk about living in an alternative universe. Who in the fuck listened to the joke about Sarah Palin and though Wanda Sykes was talking about HER sex life? Bristol’s maybe, but not Sarah’s. Sheesh.

  23. 23.

    wasabi gasp

    May 10, 2009 at 11:19 pm

    Like no one ever roasted a pig before.

  24. 24.

    El Cid

    May 10, 2009 at 11:21 pm

    Wait — does this mean that these journalists are showing empathy with how this joke could be affecting Rush Limbaugh?

    If so, it means they’re completely unsuitable for the U.S. Supreme Court in the eyes of our neo-Confederate GOP.

  25. 25.

    Comrade Jake

    May 10, 2009 at 11:22 pm

    @sgwhiteinfla:

    You don’t understand. Jokes about Sarah Palin and abstinence are sort of the molotov cocktails of rubbing salt in the wounds for right-wingnuts.

  26. 26.

    Mr. Stuck

    May 10, 2009 at 11:24 pm

    Kidney failure doesn’t cause death, it just means you have to go into dialysis. And drug use, like Limbaugh’s, can be a cause of kidney failure.

    Does anyone remember back in the early 2000’s before we knew of Rush’s Oxycontin habit? The fatasse lost his hearing supposedly from some kind of autoimmune disease. Well, it turned out it was because hearing loss is a side effect of very excessive Barbiturate abuse. When he went to rehab his hearing came back. I remember all the sympathy the wingnuts and some in the press were piling on the doper, and he ate it up and played the brave trooper who would go on broadcasting despite his unfortunate handicap/

  27. 27.

    Andre

    May 10, 2009 at 11:24 pm

    @wasabi gasp:

    Like no one ever roasted a pig before.

    Ladyboy spitroast?

  28. 28.

    Comrade Jake

    May 10, 2009 at 11:27 pm

    What are the odds Rush takes issue with Sykes’ sexual orientation tomorrow? It’s a damn shame there aren’t prediction markets for wingnuttery.

  29. 29.

    DougJ

    May 10, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    Here’s one more thing: yes, I can see how someone might think the Limbaugh jokes were a little much, but the Palin joke? That was funny and not at all offensive. Come on.

  30. 30.

    someguy

    May 10, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    @ DougJ

    Jebus dude. I guess the humor was on sale at A&P but you went shopping at Costco, huh? FWIW, simple point of fact, everybody I’ve known who got kidney failure croaked within 6 months thereafter, including a couple family members who crashed in a shitstorm of diabetes, gangrene, failing eyesight, and some other fun stuff. So maybe it doesn’t kill you, but to my way of thinking, kidney failure is a “the pattern’s clear” from Death’s air traffic control tower. Still, here I am trying to joke and you’re calling me a winger. Just for that, I hope you get herpes of the eye. That’s not fatal either so you can’t accuse me of being uncivil. (I understand you can contract eye herp from looking at Ann Coulter without a welding helmet).

  31. 31.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 10, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    @sgwhiteinfla: I totally forgot about Rush joking about that. I was thinking, who the fuck is the whiny woman from the Times? But, she did say (when Klein went on his rant), “Do we want to hold Rush up as an example?” Or something like that. I loved the joke about Obama being black until he fucks up. And the Sarah Palin joke. Besides, that’s what you get when you ask Wanda to perform. You want toothless, you ask Rich Little. Klein was right. It’s much more disgusting what Rush does on a daily basis than Wanda telling a couple of jokes about Rush. It’s like the whole, “It’s worse to show pictures of torture than to torture” meme.

    @DougJ: Really? She wasn’t wishing for Rush’s death? Then, the joke is even more appropriate. I love the strung out on Oxycontin joke. What, we’re not supposed to mention Rush’s past addiction even though he advocated locking up all addicts?

    Finally, Obama did not laugh at the joke. He looked uncomfortable as he smiled.

  32. 32.

    wasabi gasp

    May 10, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    @Andre: This was my comment: oh, heck, I wasn’t talking about me. I can barely carve a spiral cut ham without getting grossed out.

    Then, after figuring I might wanna give it a goog: you dirty bastard.

  33. 33.

    Dennis-SGMM

    May 10, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    The crowd now clutching its pearls and calling for smelling salts is the same crowd that thought it was really droll when Bush jokingly pretended to look for WMDs at one of the WHC dinners.

  34. 34.

    Graeme

    May 10, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    I can’t believe anyone would pretend there’s some kind of story here in the wake of the GOP convention. After the 9ui11ani and Palin speeches, I think it’s hilarious anyone is feigning outrage.

    Hope it has Limbaugh chattering, though. The more he rages, the more people he turns off.

    That said, where is the fairness doctrine he was whining about? Haven’t seen it, nor have I see the heralded gun ban.

    Still waiting on the return of the black helicopters. I wonder why there was no Bush Administration investigation of that Clinton-era phenomenon?

  35. 35.

    Mr. Stuck

    May 10, 2009 at 11:35 pm

    yes, I can see how someone might think the Limbaugh jokes were a little much,

    But still less than his deservitude, deservance, deservedness , you know what I mean.

  36. 36.

    sgwhiteinfla

    May 10, 2009 at 11:35 pm

    Comrade Jake

    I literally twittered that wingnuts were going to go apeshit last night as Wanda Sykes was doing her thing. These mofos are so predictable you wouldn’t even be able to win any money in a futures market because just about everybody would guess correctly just like you. Not only will he bring up Sykes’ sexual orientation, he will also proclaim that President Obama picked her, that she was chosen in part because of her race, that he could never get away with calling President Obama a mulatto like she did, that she was actually making fun of the victims of 9-11 and not him with that joke….. I could go on and on but whats the use? It will all be on media matters by this time tomorrow.

  37. 37.

    DougJ

    May 10, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    FWIW, simple point of fact, everybody I’ve known who got kidney failure croaked within 6 months thereafter, including a couple family members who crashed in a shitstorm of diabetes, gangrene, failing eyesight, and some other fun stuff.

    I’m sorry to hear that.

    I meant no disrespect. I have a friend whose kidneys failed about ten years ago. Five years of dialysis and five years of transplant later, he’s doing okay.

  38. 38.

    Kryptik

    May 10, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    Pat Buchanan, who has his own history of offensive comments, likewise said on MSNBC that Sykes’s jokes about Limbaugh will “hurt the dinner.”

    Yep, after all, the Dinner is all about good natured jokes. Like looking under a couch and asking “Are the WMDs in there?”

  39. 39.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 10, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    Oh, and Pat Buchanan has NO right to talk about what is and isn’t appropriate. I will never, for the life of me, figure out why this crotchety old bastard is still allowed to blather on the teevee.

  40. 40.

    Michael

    May 10, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    I can’t help but think that somewhere in the GOP there are rooms of shoved-out-RINO-former-Powers-That-Were who look upon the carnage of every Limbaugh kerfluffle and see ….

    Ishtar. Popeye. Shining 1980 (where everybody rooted for Nicholson to kill Shelley Duvall). Godfather III. Dune. Heaven’s Gate. The Witches of Eastwick.

    All mediocrities…..

  41. 41.

    jrg

    May 10, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    Wanda Sykes is rich, bitches.

  42. 42.

    sgwhiteinfla

    May 10, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    asiangrrlMN

    re Pat Buchannan

    IOKIYAR

    This has been yet another episode of SATSQ

  43. 43.

    HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker

    May 10, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    Bingo, my reaction exactly. Fuck all of them. Fuck the beltway insiders. They are nobody.

  44. 44.

    JK

    May 10, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    This was totally predictable. I’ve always despised these stupid fucking dinners and now I have a new reason to hate them. I fully expect Morning Douchebag Joe Scarbororough to beat this story to death as well as Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. Even the neutral shows like Anderson Cooper 360, Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room, GMA, and the Today Show will cover this story..

    I expect that all the same people blasting Wanda Sykes comments about Limbaugh’s kidneys won’t have a damn word of criticism for golf analyst David Feherty who suggested most soldiers would shoot Pelosi and strangle Reid if they had the opportunity.

    The statements aren’t exactly equivalent to me, but I think both were wrong and indefensible.

    Howard Kurtz is an obscenity and an abomination.

  45. 45.

    wasabi gasp

    May 10, 2009 at 11:42 pm

    My pops has been running on a hand-me-down kidney for about twenty years.

  46. 46.

    Fencedude

    May 10, 2009 at 11:42 pm

    So what, there was no outrage at Obama calling Boehner a “Person of color”?

    I thought that bit was hilarious

  47. 47.

    SpotWeld

    May 10, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    … it’s probably cruel of me to think this, but Rush’s public persona is such an outrageous exaggeration of any sort of reality, it’s like making fun of him isn’t really like making fun of a real person.

    That said, Colbert did a much better job of it.

  48. 48.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 10, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    @sgwhiteinfla: Oh, I know that. It was a fucking rhetorical question.

    I thought the joke was funny. Full disclosure: I have a crush on Wanda. Yes, on her, too. If she had done what Amanda whatever-her-name-is from the Moonie Times suggested, she wouldn’t have been funny at all. She is edgy, damn it. It would be like if they invited Margaret Cho and then freaked because she talked about pegging her boyfriend.

    You fucking lost, Republicans. Please deal with it soon.

    The only thing is, now Rush is made out to be a martyr to the cause.

    robertdsc, that wouldn’t have stopped her if she wasn’t already in such deep shit with her constituents. I follow her antics on a daily basis, and she really had no choice.

  49. 49.

    robertdsc

    May 10, 2009 at 11:47 pm

    Here’s one more thing: yes, I can see how someone might think the Limbaugh jokes were a little much, but the Palin joke? That was funny and not at all offensive. Come on.

    To be fair, she pulled out due to a natural disaster in Alaska. She did the right thing.

  50. 50.

    sgwhiteinfla

    May 10, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    JK

    There is one thing though, there were quite a few MSM journos tweeting from the dinner and almost to a person they had good things to say about Sykes last night when it was fresh. So unless they scrub their tweets quite a few of them are going to be called out as hypocrites if they feign indignation now after the right wing talking points have taken hold.

    Here is Chris Cillizza’s tweet for instance

    http://twitter.com/TheFix/status/1751449830

    And that was AFTER the Limbaugh jokes.

  51. 51.

    DougJ

    May 10, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    In total fairness, I didn’t think the stuff about Rush was all that funny. I thought the joke about Palin was very funny.

    But, good Lord, these jack asses yukked it up when Bush joked about a war that killed thousands of people. And when Imus gave a much more over-the-top routine.

    Either ignore the whole thing all the time or turn it into Sunday school all the time. They can’t pick and choose and feign outrage just because it was a black liberal this time, instead of a neo-Villager.

  52. 52.

    Nylund

    May 10, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    Considering that Rush has said that slavery “has its merits”, likes to tell his black listeners to “take the bone out of their nose,” said that with so many black people in the NFL, watching a game is like watching a fight between the Bloods and the Crips, that MLK’s assassin deserves the Medal of Honor, that all criminal police sketches look like Jesse Jackson, and sang the “Barack the Magic Negro” song, I really don’t think Rush has a leg to stand on in the “civility” argument.

  53. 53.

    DougJ

    May 10, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    To be fair, she pulled out due to a natural disaster in Alaska. She did the right thing.

    Sure, but it was still a perfectly good-natured joke.

  54. 54.

    Warren Terra

    May 10, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    @ #2 Arguingwithsignposts:

    And, FWIW, the Houston Chronicle had Alberto “I don’t recall” Gonzalez at their table. WTF?

    From The News York Times’s ‘Caucus’ Blog, and apparently with similar text all over the Internets:

    The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has a long history as Washington’s annual nerd prom — a black-tie confab where Washington’s A list meets Hollywood’s B (and C) list. It started in 1920, and received a red-carpet ramp-up in 1987, when Michael Kelly, then a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, brought Oliver North’s document-shredding secretary, Fawn Hall, as his guest. The next year he brought Donna Rice, whose involvement with Gary Hart sank his campaign, and soon all of the Beltway’s news organizations were competing to get the hottest “get.”

    The point being not only that Michael Kelly was an asshole (although anyone who watched what he did to the New Republic or the Atlantic already knew that) but that inviting the disreputable or the scandalous is seen as an accomplishment, not an embarrassment. Although, while Gonzales is rather more scandalous then either Fawn Hall or Donna Rice, he isn’t half the arm candy, however boyish his grin.

  55. 55.

    Nylund

    May 10, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    Wasn’t the entire GOP 2008 presidential campaign pretty much based around the attempt to convince America that Obama was a terrorist and a traitor?

  56. 56.

    Comrade Kevin

    May 10, 2009 at 11:54 pm

    @robertdsc:

    To be fair, she pulled out due to a natural disaster in Alaska. She did the right thing.

    “Baby, the rhythm method isn’t about making it with every trio that plays the Blackhawk” – Lenny Bruce

  57. 57.

    Zifnab

    May 10, 2009 at 11:57 pm

    Dear Rush Limbaugh,

    Please get into a pissing contest with Wanda Sykes as you once again become the poster child for the drug binging, obnoxious, whine-o-holics that have come to dominate your party. We think this will really help you out in 2010.

    Sincerely,

    72% of America

  58. 58.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 10, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    @Nylund: Ding ding ding! We have a winner! But, that was in the course of a heated election, so anything goes. For something as august as the fucking White House Correspondents Dinner, well, a little more decorum is expected.

    /snark

    @Zifnab: I would pay good money to see Wanda and Rush go head to head.

  59. 59.

    TR

    May 11, 2009 at 12:05 am

    Rush only likes it when it’s a fair fight, like with a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton or a Parkinson’s victim like Michael J. Fox.

  60. 60.

    Down and Out of SĂ i GĂČn

    May 11, 2009 at 12:06 am

    @sgwhiteinfla: I hear you. Someone has to be a pretty emasculated, useless journalist to utter “Lie is a strong word”. Catching out people in lies is one way to build a reporter’s career. Any journo who would even think the sentence in the pearl-clutching way above would be hold up for derision in most countries.

  61. 61.

    wasabi gasp

    May 11, 2009 at 12:07 am

    Sure, but it was still a perfectly good-natured joke.

    And, the overton window of yuks just got a fire rescue sticker slapped on it.

  62. 62.

    JK

    May 11, 2009 at 12:09 am

    Tasteless, offensive jokes are the rule not the exception for the WH Correspondents’ Dinner, the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner, the Alfalfa Club Dinner, and the Gridiron Dinner.

    This anecdote of Nixon and Agnew at the Gridiron Dinner is tamer than Wanda Sykes but if it had been caught on video, I imagine it would have generated some criticism. The Gridiron and Alfalfa Diners still ban cameras.

    Things got no better at the Gridiron that night. determined that a good time would be had by all, and equally determined to bring down the house, Richard Nixon appeared as the final act. The curtain pulled back to reveal the president and VP Spiro Agnew seated at two modest black pianos This was the first time a chief executive had appeared on the Gridiron stage, and Nixon opened by asking: “What about this ‘southern strategy’ we hear so often?” “Yes suh, Mr. President,” Agnew replied, “Ah agree with you completely on yoah southern strategy.” The dialect, as Roger Wilkins, former LBJ aide, observed, got the biggest boffo.
    After more banter with the “darky” Agnew, Nixon opened the piano duet with Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite song (“Home on the Range”), then Harry Truman’s (“Missouri Waltz”), then Lyndon Johnson’s (“The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You”). Agnew, drowned him out a few bars into each with a manic Dixie” on his piano, and the Gridiron crew got louder and louder. “The crowd ate” it up,” Roger Wilkins observed. “They roared.”

    h/t http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nixons.htm

  63. 63.

    TR

    May 11, 2009 at 12:13 am

    Between John Boehner and Eric Cantor claiming the GOP voted against the September 2008 bailout because Nancy Pelosi was mean to them, Glenn Beck being reduced to tears at the sound of a slammed door, and now Rush Limbaugh’s minions crying that his poor widdle feelings were hurt by the mean lady comedian, it’s clear that today’s conservative movement has about as much testosterone as a combo knitting bee and tupperware party on the Isle of Lesbos.

    Sack the fuck up, conservatives. You’re embarrassing yourselves.

  64. 64.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 11, 2009 at 12:14 am

    @JK: Frankly, I find what Nixon and Agnew did a great deal more offensive than Wanda’s joke. They were making fun of a strategy that systematically disenfranchised a whole group of people–the effects of which still linger until today. That’s reprehensible.

  65. 65.

    Comrade Kevin

    May 11, 2009 at 12:16 am

    @JK:

    This anecdote of Nixon and Agnew at the Gridiron Dinner is tamer than Wanda Sykes

    No it isn’t.

  66. 66.

    HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker

    May 11, 2009 at 12:17 am

    Someone has to be a pretty emasculated, useless journalist to utter “Lie is a strong word”. Catching out people in lies is one way to build a reporter’s career. Any journo who would even think the sentence in the pearl-clutching way above would be hold up for derision in most countries.

    You are talking about a reporter, but the people on tv are performers. This is what happens when you mix performance with journalism. You get a bad version of both.

  67. 67.

    JK

    May 11, 2009 at 12:20 am

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Honestly, I don’t approve of either but you’re right Nixon and Agnew were much more offensive. I deeply regret using that characterization.

  68. 68.

    Dennis-SGMM

    May 11, 2009 at 12:20 am

    @TR:

    Sack the fuck up, conservatives.

    Now I get it: the real reason Bushco didn’t capture bin Laden was because he threatened to taunt them if they tried.

  69. 69.

    tammanycall

    May 11, 2009 at 12:21 am

    Rush talked smack about the only Republican I’ve every liked (Alex P. Keaton) & if he wants to dish it out then he better be ready to take it. As for the press corps, they invite Sykes to host, but when she does a routine that’s very much like her standup and plays well in the room, they flip out. I bet if we look at the tape, the same people shaking their heads on the talk shows this morning were laughing in the room Saturday night. These people have no integrity.

  70. 70.

    JK

    May 11, 2009 at 12:21 am

    @Comrade Kevin:

    You’re right and I was dead wrong to label it as such.

  71. 71.

    Church Lady

    May 11, 2009 at 12:25 am

    @DougJ:

    I’m very glad that your friend is doing well. However, his good health isn’t everyone’s story. My dental hygenist, Sandy, suffered from kidney failure. She had two transplants, each of which was eventually rejected. She died while waiting for a third. She was forty. And no, dialysis wasn’t enough to keep her alive.

  72. 72.

    JoyceH

    May 11, 2009 at 12:39 am

    You know, I didn’t think the Limbaugh jokes were particularly funny — but what surprises me is the notion that it is offensively over the top to JOKE that wishing the president to fail puts you in league with the terrorists who want to kill Americans, when for almost eight years it wasn’t considered offensively over the top to say the same thing in all seriousness.

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    May 11, 2009 at 12:42 am

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    I think it’s hilarious anyone is feigning outrage.

    This is, of course, a GOP specialty. They love to say outrageous things about their political enemies and shrug off any criticism with “How come you can’t take a joke?”

    But when they are mocked, they immediately drum up the outrage, and get their squads of dittoheads to whine about how unfair “liberal politicians” are.

    So I expect the GOP smear machine to have John Boehner claim that Obama himself not only approved of everything that Wanda Sykes said, but also that he personally wrote her comedy routine.

    Because, after all, Rush is a true patriot.

  74. 74.

    MikeJ

    May 11, 2009 at 1:10 am

    inviting the disreputable or the scandalous is seen as an accomplishment, not an embarrassment.

    Ahhh. Dogfight.

  75. 75.

    Calouste

    May 11, 2009 at 1:20 am

    So Jake Tapper is quoting the Torygraph? What happened? Is the Moonie Times no longer respectable enough?

  76. 76.

    Zuzu's Petals

    May 11, 2009 at 1:43 am

    Wha… ? The guy thought Obama thought it hilarious?

    Was he even at the same dinner? Every shot of Obama shows him with an “I’m not touching that!” look, smiling or not.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    May 11, 2009 at 1:53 am

    @TR:

    Rush only likes it when it’s a fair fight, like with a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton or a Parkinson’s victim like Michael J. Fox.

    Yep. I guarantee you that Limbaugh is going to let this pass, because he knows that Sykes will wipe the floor with him. He’ll say one or two things about “dignity” and “being above it all,” but he won’t dare say anything in return because he knows that Sykes will have no inhibitions about defending herself.

  78. 78.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 11, 2009 at 1:54 am

    @JoyceH: One, Rush was not joking. Two, tell me which liberal pundit/newsperson said s/he wanted Bush to fail. You can’t, because they didn’t. If anything, they said that he will fail–which is a hell of a lot different than saying you want him to fail. I didn’t want Bush to fail, but I damn well knew he would.

  79. 79.

    Andrew

    May 11, 2009 at 1:59 am

    WOW so when you water board People not from the right wing, it is enhanced interrogation, but when you do it to people from the right wing, it’s Torture. Ok now I get it

  80. 80.

    Comrade Kevin

    May 11, 2009 at 2:04 am

    @Calouste: Next he’ll be quoting the Daily Mail, haha.

  81. 81.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 11, 2009 at 2:04 am

    @Andrew: Don’t forget, it’s only hypothetical waterboarding, too. It’s not like Rush will ever be waterboarded or made to suffer any of the other atrocities that were committed against the Gitmo detainees.

  82. 82.

    Jess

    May 11, 2009 at 2:34 am

    I didn’t think much of her routine was funny (except for the Pelosi crack). It was too bitter and not particularly clever. But on the other hand, a lot of it needed to be said, and maybe this is the best way to get it heard by the Village. But by all means, let’s debate what the rules are for slapping someone with the T-word, and let’s encourage Rush to demonstrate what he believes the appropriate level of civility in public discourse should be.

  83. 83.

    cokane

    May 11, 2009 at 2:46 am

    I cannot stand Jake Tapper. A freaking disgrace, and yet I’m sure he styles himself a real journalist–apart from his Obama worshipping cohorts.

    But he’s a hack. He learned how to be a journalist by watching Hard Copy.

  84. 84.

    BDeevDad

    May 11, 2009 at 2:50 am

    @TR: I’d take Michael J. Fox in that fight. He got off some one-liners during his book tour.
    And with the way Chelsea turned out, she’d probably kick his ass as well.

  85. 85.

    Anoniminous

    May 11, 2009 at 3:10 am

    @JK:

    I expect that all the same people blasting Wanda Sykes comments about Limbaugh’s kidneys won’t have a damn word of criticism for golf analyst David Feherty who suggested most soldiers would shoot Pelosi and strangle Reid if they had the opportunity.

    FTW

  86. 86.

    pablo

    May 11, 2009 at 5:24 am

    If God loves me, in 3 months, we’ll be having to stomach blogosphere cries of “Wanda Sykes’ kidney failure jokes caused Rush to die of a massive heart attack” Yeah, I’m making jokes about ill fortune on others, but he’s an unrepentant asshole who wants to have it both ways.

    One should never make jokes about someone’s demise….oh, fuck…why not?

  87. 87.

    oh really

    May 11, 2009 at 6:45 am

    Rush is vile. He can dish it out, but he can’t take it …

    Unless it’s a Schedule 2 pain killer. Then, he can take it. Man can he take it; and take it; and take it; and take it; and…

  88. 88.

    General Woundwort

    May 11, 2009 at 8:36 am

    Now I get it: the real reason Bushco didn’t capture bin Laden was because he threatened to taunt them if they tried.

    “I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

    …..now go away or I shall taunt you a second time. “

  89. 89.

    gil mann

    May 11, 2009 at 8:44 am

    Tasteless, offensive jokes are the rule not the exception for the WH Correspondents’ Dinner, the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner, the Alfalfa Club Dinner, and the Gridiron Dinner

    Tasteful, inoffensive jokes are the rule not the exception for shitty comedy that sucks and is not funny. The comic’s credo should be “First, do harm.”

    p.s. Best nickname ever, h/t whoever came up with it (might’ve been someone here, I don’t remember): Jake “That Ass” Tapper.

  90. 90.

    Lee

    May 11, 2009 at 10:15 am

    Kidney failure doesn’t cause death

    Keep pointing out this to the wingnuts. Of course we know wingnuts have a problem with science and reality.

  91. 91.

    Cyrus

    May 11, 2009 at 10:34 am

    @asiangrrlMN: I think you misread JoyceH. “What surprises me is the notion that it is offensively over the top to JOKE that wishing the president to fail puts you in league with the terrorists who want to kill Americans, when for almost eight years it wasn’t considered offensively over the top to say the same thing in all seriousness.”

    Conservatives are apparently saying re: Sykes, that it’s offensive for a comedian to say that someone is in league with terrorists, and yet for eight years you could hear not just comedians but actual politicians saying that about people. JoyceH says she finds this surprising.

    IOKIYAR.

  92. 92.

    ricky

    May 11, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    Why did Jake’s parents name him after closeted bathroom pick up antics?

  93. 93.

    ricky

    May 11, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    I cannot stand Jake Tapper. A freaking disgrace,….But he’s a hack….. He learned how to be a journalist by watching Hard Copy.

    He picked right up on the “copy” part.

  94. 94.

    kay

    May 11, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    What are the press mad about, today?

    Someone or other disturbed their stupid, self-congratulatory dinner?

    I went to a graduation while they were at this dinner. The speaker was a horrible. I’m outraged. I’m going to write 300 words about it, and see if anyone will apologize to me.

  95. 95.

    kim

    May 11, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    “…suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead.”

    To which I reply: Something tells me that Wanda Sykes is amongst the legions of us who are upset and appalled at the torture techniques used against, yes, even terrorists. Also…why, when Rush, IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, was calling me a traitor and an agitator (for protesting the war) was he not wishing me tortured and dead…but when a comedian makes A JOKE about someone being a traitor, she must clearly be wishing him tortured and dead?

  96. 96.

    Michael G

    May 12, 2009 at 12:51 am

    Pat Buchanan, who has his own history of offensive comments, likewise said on MSNBC that Sykes’s jokes about Limbaugh will “hurt the dinner.”

    Seriously, on the list of shit that anyone, anywhere should be worrying about, that ranks dead last.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Leave Rush alone, continued says:
    May 11, 2009 at 12:52 am

    […] Those offended by Wanda Sykes’ jokes about Rush Limbaugh at the WHCD last night might do well to remember some of what has gone on in the past at as similar party, the Gridiron dinner (h/t commenter JK): […]

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